Memories
by 7Katara7
Summary: Aang, Sokka and Katara return to the South Pole and Katara finds herself rediscovering her own past, these ruins bring pain and worst of all Memory.......
1. Memories

Memories

By: 7Katara7

Aang, Sokka and Katara finally reached the South Pole. They landed. "Well, we are here, but your village is farther along. It's just too late to go though, so let's just get some rest." Aang told them. They had landed in front off Sokka and Katara's very old town. It lay in smolders and ash, the roof was there and some walls still stood but they were in bad shape. Katara looked at it and remembered;

**Flashback**

"Mommy, mommy! Is this were we are going to live?" 8 year old Katara asked. "Yes sweetie, we should be safe here." Katara's mother responded. "Safe from what Mommy?" Katara asked looking at her mother suspiciously. "Oh, honey, nothing you need to worry about." Her mother responded holding Katara close.

**End of Flashback**

Katara rolled about her sleeping bag and tried to get some rest. But she couldn't, not when **_it _**took place here. She stepped out of the sleeping bag and stood. Breathing she took a step toward the rubble. She had not been here for years. She took another step, fire and screaming could be seen and heard as her mind raced through the memories. Katara slumped to her knees unable to continue.

Tears streamed down her face and she stood again. She took a step; this is where the past still haunts…. She touched the walls; they were cold but hot to her as she remembered burning herself on them running from….. She took her hand off. Haunting memories shivered down her spine. Katara stepped again entering the broken building. She heard a desperate cry in her memories; "Don't hurt my baby!" Katara's knees wobbled. She kept telling herself to ignore but memories pulled her away.

Katara walked in stepping carefully as with each step memories flooded back. Tears hit the ground and steamed away; her memories lied to her. She saw bodies and fire and hurt and pain and then long brown hair…

She gasped at her memories' site, her mind tricking her. She looked about, the screaming sound increasing the fires crackling growing, her hands burned. She whirled around the room spinning. Bodies of Fire nation and Water tribe warriors. Spears clung to their backs, fire burned their flesh the smell hovering and clouding her mind. She fell back, teams rolling down her face. Fire crackling, room spinning, dead bodies on the ground. Her heart thumped as she stood and began to run as if she could escape the sounds and the memories.

Her heart thumped with every step. Her mind jolting back the loss and memory, her nose smelling burning rubble and flesh, her eyes seeing bodies that she could not trip on, her ears hearing her name being called out but never turning to see who, because she knew. She tripped over a Fire nation weapon. She stumbled and fell to the ground hitting her head on a rock. She looked up and shrieked at the skull that looked back at her. Her memories racing, whirling, roaring. She heard "Katara flee! Run! Leave me, you'll have a better chance!" and then a deathly cry of defeat. "I am not here….. it's over, it's over." She sobbed rocking back and forth as memories pulled her from reality. "It's over…. I am not eight…. I am fourteen…. I am not eight…… I AM NOT HERE!"

She screamed eyes shut, heart beating, herself panting. They all stopped. The sound, the smell and the scenes. Katara looked about her, and then fell into a deep sob.

At camp, Aang awoke to the sounds of sobbing. He stood and fallowed it. He walked into the rubble and pieces of rooms. He was startled at the skeletons lying about the floor. Then he saw one skeleton, it's hand on it's chest. It wore Water tribe clothing and it had long brown hair that somehow reminded him of someone. **_Katara! _**He gasped in realization. It was indeed on the ground Katara's dead mother and across from her; Katara.

He looked at her. She sat there. Her head in her lap covered by her folded arms. Her body shook violently as it rocked back and forth. Her shoulders moved up and down in motion with her breath between sobs.

Aang stepped toward her. She didn't notice, she sat there, just lost in her own memories. Aang set his hand on her shoulder. Her head whipped up and he looked at her face.

Her cheeks where wet from tears and her eyes puffy from crying. He sat next to her. Katara desperately tried to keep tears away. She choked them down but they came back harder. He held her hand and he saw her eyes. They were filled with loss and struggle, no hope and defeat, her eyes showed haunting memories, Aang looked away from the terror in her eyes. He looked back her head down. "Katara, its okay I am here." Aang told her. She still was filled with terror. "You don't have to hold it back," Aang continued.

She looked at him with a little less pain. "Just let it out, I am here for you." Aang said embracing like her mother once did. She buried her face in his chest and sobbed, shaking violently. They sat there together.


	2. Truth

Memories

By: 7Katara7

"Katara, what happened here?" Aang asked. Katara looked up as if he was asking her to do the impossible. "Sorry, I was just wondering what made you upset." Aang told her. Katara looked up at him, "I-I will try to tell y-y-you." She chocked back tears and told him of her memory that haunted every night.

**Flashback**

Her tribe had just moved in after recovering from the first attack. The building was big; to Katara it seemed untouchable and safe. Sokka got his room and Katara stayed with her mom. Late that night, the screaming began. Katara's mother shook her awake. "Mommy, what's going on?" Katara asked. Her mother pulled her out of bed. "Where's Sokka?" Katara asked. "He is with your father, safe from here." She responded quickly pulling her child down halls and across rooms.

They stepped into one room and saw bodies and blood everywhere. Katara's mother gasped. "They are here, closer than I thought." Her mom exclaimed. "Who?" Katara asked. Then the distance, Katara saw it; a dead fire nation soldier and many Water Tribe soldiers around it. Katara screamed. Her mother cupped her daughter's mouth with her hand. Katara's mother pulled her in a room where fire nation and water tribe fought viciously. "Oooo, a mommy and daughter!" One of the Fire nation soldiers purred turning to look at them.

"Don't hurt my baby!" Katara's mother cried. Katara stood near the exit in shock. "Katara flee! Run! Leave me you will have a better chance!" Her mother yelled leading the soldier away. Katara turned and ran, doing as her mother wished her to, tears rolling down her cheeks. Then she heard a defeated scream. And it belonged to her mother. Katara turned to stop then remembered what her mother had said. She kept racing through the building.

She tripped and fell but got back up and continued. Then a hand shot out and pulled her into a room. "Shhhhh." Sokka whispered holding his sister. They got out of there and ran to their father. "Where's you mom?" Katara looked away, tears streaming down her face. Then they and the other survivors fled the place to a safe shelter. The next the day it was over and Katara, her father and her brother, walked inside seeing no life. Katara stood next to her mother. She bent down and unlaced the necklace around the dead women's neck. Katara held it sobbing. She handed it to her father. "No keep it, it belongs to you now." He told her refusing to take it. Katara looked at it and then put it on. Katara smiled, **_this is how mother will still be with me._**

**End of Flashback**

Aang looked sad, "That's how it happened." Katara said finishing her story. Aang held her tighter, "What's done, is done. You can't go back, so stop thinking about it." Aang told her wiping away a tear from her face. He stood and then helped her up. She felt so close to Aang, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, she felt…. safe. Katara looked around the room and smiled, from now on she would remember the past, live in the present and look towards the future. Katara took a final glance on there exit and sighed happily_, **no more memories. **_


End file.
